New Run Activity Pages

Please leave us your comments and feedback for the new Run Activity pages here.

Great news, runners: your new run activity page on Strava.com is now live. We spoke to tons of you about what is important when viewing your activities and those of others, and have incorporated your needs and experiences as runners into this new page.

Some of the new features:

Social Bar: We added a social bar to the top of the page, putting your activity title, description, comments, kudos, Instagram photos, and other athletes on your run front and center.

Sharing Module: Easily share your run to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, or embed in your blog from the sharing module located at the top, left-hand corner of the page.

Key Stats: Distance, time, average pace and elevation are located between the Social Bar and Elevation & Performance Chart. Your mile/km splits from your run are located on the right-hand side of your activity map.

Top Results: Get a snapshot of your achievements for the run, including any goals you have accomplished, PRs for best efforts, and segment achievements.

Elevation & Performance Chart: We’ve vastly improved the visual interaction for reviewing and scrubbing all your activity details. Use the cursor to look at your pace, elevation, grade adjusted pace and grade at any point during your run.

Premium Analysis: We've rolled out changes to the Pace analysis and distribution, including the new analysis specific to a race. Now you can designate a run activity as a "Race" and get interactive and granular data such as race splits and projected finish times.

Segment Efforts, Stats & Comparison: We’ve optimized the Segment Efforts within your activity so you can quickly scan your most meaningful achievements. We display key stats of your effort along with your leaderboard ranking. And when you’re looking at another athlete’s segment effort, you’ll be able to compare your PR against theirs.

Some of the changes: There are aspects of the run activity pages that are not currently available, with some of these aspects scheduled to return, redesigned, at a later date:

Viewing the Performance Chart with 'time' as the x-axis: The new performance chart is set with 'distance' as the x-axis, and we plan to re-add the option to switch to 'time' in the near future (coming soon).

Lap data from a Garmin device: Will now be visible underneath the Segments view in the left sidebar for Free and Premium users.

Segment Comparison: The ability to compare your segment effort with your PR and/or the CR for the segment has been removed, and will return after a redesign incorporating the features from http://raceshape.com/.

Run "Score": The run intensity score that appeared previously under the Analysis tab is no longer available, but will return when the calculation is more accurate.

GAP for mile splits: We're currently working on our algorithm for GAP. Once the algorithm is improved, GAP split data will be displayed on our new Premium Pace & Race Analysis pages.

Best Efforts: The technology available used to generate Best Efforts was not up to our high standard of accuracy. Due to this, we will continue to display any PRs you receive for the next few weeks, but then we will turn off Best Efforts in its current form. Over the next few months, we'll continue to explore innovative and relevant ways to bring this feature back to all users once it has reached our high standards of accuracy. We apologize for this change.

Some Known Issues:

FIXED Performance Issues: We're hard at work improving the performance issues that have been reported. Improvements coming soon.

FIXED Hidden Segments: Hidden segments will be re-adding this week (we still need to add the ability to hide and unhide segments)

Comments

It is strange they don't fix the bugs more quickly, even the simple ones. But it's not only the run pages. Another example is listed in the Known Issues - when you click on a cycling segment, the Segment Detals section shows values for the whole ride instead of that segment.

But, as Strava describes, the real values are right there in the segment summary at the bottom of that same page! So you'd think, display that value in that slot. Five minutes later problem solved! Easier to fix than write the report in Known Issues. But 12 days later, no fix. Yes, mind boggling!

I'm a runner. I'm trying to work out my laps for the marathon I ran yesterday. I'm totally confused by this new interface and will be cancelling my premium membership. What alternative is there to Strava, guys and girls?

I find it most odd that Strava don't seem to notice their users openly discussing which competitor to move to on their forums despite the fact that there is an easy fix to make everyone happy again. ROLL BACK!!!

I managed to have a nice conversation with an employee about the run pages, but I don't want to be too specific because they were really frank and honest with me. Here's what I gave for 'issues' with the new layout, add to it if you can:

----

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it. I think that the problem lies in pace dictating the graph rather than elevation. It might sound good in theory, but in practice it creates situations like this:

Yes, for a short moment in a six and a half mile run my pace dropped to 50 minutes, but the fact that pace dictates the graph means that the rest of the pace display for the run is rendered virtually useless. And yes, a steep increase in elevation can throw off the labeling/display of a graph, but in order for that to happen there has to be a lot of elevation gain rather than just a momentary lapse. And in many cases, the large amount of elevation gain is the whole reason you're running a particular route in the first place.

It's more intuitive for elevation to take the lead in the display because a steep downhill or steep uphill leads to an increase or decrease in pace. An increase or decrease in speed can't influence elevation.

It's more aesthetically pleasing and easier on the eyes and brain to look at a graph based on elevation. The nice, thick green lines "ground" the pace and heart rate make everything make sense.

The first image is the old layout. Everything is on the same layer, so the brain can instantly connect why my heart rate would have decreased, or why my pace would have increased while I was going downhill. Also, everything islabeled in the first image. There's a basis, without scrolling over an area in the run, for what the pace and heart rate variables actually mean. In the second image there isn't a scale/label for heart rate and speed.

Lastly as far as elevation is concerned, looking at the second image, let's face it. It looks WAY less impressive/notable/even noticeable that I was doing hill repeats of a hill with over 100 feet of elevation gain. Small changes in elevation are barely noticeable to the eye in the new layout.

Also, it appears that segments no longer appear on the graph either. This is a shame but not the end of the world. Best efforts (400m, half mile, mile, 5k, etc) also no longer seem to appear. Those are small milestones that I appreciate looking at.

Thanks for hearing me out.

-------

The response, which was well thought-out told me the following:

-Yes, they know what we're saying here.

-Yes, they know that most people are dissatisfied.

-They were pressured by a timeframe that they had set for the public (the Boston marathon) and released the new pages before they were ready.

*They say that they'll never make a mistake like that ever again.

-For best efforts, there was a major flaw in their calculations, that gave improper best efforts. They will be adding them back when they can figure out a good, scaleable way to calculate best efforts.

*They were removed until they can be fixed, despite the fact that runners didn't seem to mind. They *will* be re-introduced though.

-Segments on the graph will also make a return at some point in the future. It's unclear however, how it will look. It may look different.

-As far as the chart is concerned, I was told, "Thanks for the feedback on the chart."

Is it really necessary to keep posting negative comments and stating how you are going to leave and use a competitor. People seem to forget that this is a free service. I'm a premium member and will reserve judgement until Strava say all changes are now complete.

Lots of elements of the old run page got removed in the first instance. One of those was the elevation correction feature. I raised a ticket, received an apology from Strava, and a few days later the feature re-appeared.

Strava provide a great service. Give them a chance to put things right before complaining and jumping ship.

Just for the record, I preferred the old layout too, but I do believe Strava are working towards making the new layout better than the old layout, then rolling out to cycling once they start getting the thumbs up.

John, I think there are some valid concerns being raised. I paid for premium in early April primarily because of the "Best Efforts", if it takes them months to fix it (if they ever do) then I've wasted $$$ on a feature they had when I signed up but no longer do.

That was a good summary of the issues with the pace graph by Tim a few messages ago. As Tim mentions, the big issue for me is not just that it is upside down (which is annoying) but that your rests get highlighted so much so that I now have many of my runs with just a flat line along the bottom and one or two huge "spikes" when I had to briefly pause. Regrettably you can't beat about the bush in these instances - it is just no use to me.

I do wonder if "Best Efforts" are really "fixable" when you are dealing with GPS data which is inherently imperfect. For instance a friend ran of mine ran a track 5000 last night (3.1 miles to nearest 0.1) but his Garmin & Strava gave it as 3.3 miles. As such his 5K "split" might be best part of a lap "short" and so way faster than his true "effort".

But I can be positive and say my personal use of Strava has not diminished and am still looking for segments to run on and create new ones if can't find any already. Just a pity that post run analysis is not as easy as before.

I'm surprised my summary of the new v old run pages didn't get a reaction. In all honesty, I think I prefer the new run pages - except for the graph.
As for Best Efforts, as Tim G says above - Strava can only work with the data it's given. If that data is wrong, there is not much they can do.

Andrew, your summary and comparison was good and useful. Tim gave a very nice description of the graph issues.

The graph is of course very important and the failings of the new one are one big reason why so many people are upset. Someone posted one from Runtastic above, looks good because it's like the old Strava one! :) The zooming in on the graph was a very useful feature. A lot of people are interested in performance on segments - we now get a tiny graph and map when we click on a segment, so it seems that segments are being pushed aside as a minor feature, when in fact they are one big thing that makes Strava different from other sites.

People are upset also because Strava staff have only acknowledged a few of the problems mentioned. There is a list of known issues (three of them) in an edit of the first post, but they are all fixed and there are apparently no more known issues. Leaving aside the major problems with the new interface design for a moment, what about blatant bugs of varying importance like the black lines all over the graph when scrubbing in firefox, the "99 years ago" when you click to edit the run, the graph shrinking if there is a few seconds at low speed? Various bugs people have mentioned, but they are not acknowledged or added to the known issues. Some bugs can be fixed in 5 to 10 minutes or so, so people are annoyed after putting up with it for over a month. They love Strava, they want to use it, but are being made angry. Strava staff have apologised for bringing it out in a rush but have not done much to sort out the issues, or even acknowledged them.

The best efforts bugs that people talk about were nothing to do with bad data. You could do a run with good data all the way, and do your best km (for example) with the end point higher than the start point (so qualifying for the rules) and the algorithm would sometimes just miss it, although it was plainly visible on the graph. Also you could (for example) start the timer, start running, then build up speed, then do a fast km, clearly visible on the graph, but the best effort would start from where you started the timer, not from where you accelerated.

The Best efforts seem to be still calculated, but it doesn't tell where it occurred during the run (I thought we could see that before the downgrade).

I would still prefer a separate page with the best 400m, 1k, 1m, 2k... not just a short summary in the profile of the PBs for a selected numbers of distance.

I am really hoping to get the compare feature back, that was the most useful feature. At the moment I can only see that I was slower or faster than last time on a particular segment.

But unless my pace was constant over the whole segment, it doesn't tell me much about how I went through some sections of the segment. The only way to get something similar, but unpractical, would be to generate zillions of sub segments...

Re the premium features, The Pace Zone Analysis, you should definitely average the pace over a few seconds instead of per second. A GPS watch is not that accurate and requires the data to be smoothed a little bit to get a coherent graph. The HR zone graph is quite neat.

Anyway, I wouldn't keep my premium membership for that kind of basic graphs. The pace zone graph is only targeted to road running, of course my pace is slow on trails or hills compare to my 5k PB...

re Laps, if I pause my watch, Strava calculates incorrectly the pace/time for that particular k.

Also it's a bit frustrating to have to click on each laps to see average HR etc. The only advantage over the simple Garmin connect is that we can visualise where that particular k was during the run.

Finally the graph still hasn't changed after people spending so much time providing feedbacks, that's disappointing to say the least.

"Unfortunately, reverting back to the old layout is not an option. We do not have any timeline information to share at this time, but we do appreciate the feedback and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience."

So there you go. Despite the obvious problems and no clue when (or if) they'll fix them, we're stuck because they're too damn stubborn to admit that this was an customer service failure. It's not that they *can't* revert. That's not techinically impossible since everything *but* the run page works the old way. It's that they *won't*.

For what it's worth Endomondo does a good "best effort" for 1k, 1mile, 5k, 10k that seems to almost always get the actual best effort off of a Garmin. It's not a data problem. It's a programming problem, and not a particularly tough one. As a training tool, at this point endomondo and garmin connect are both considerably superior. I'd abandon Strava completely save that I like the segment comparison with others. As it is, the consistent "be patient" makes me think that it's a better move. If people started deleting their accounts and they saw fewer users, maybe they'd actually get the message. It seems otherwise that the people who can make decisions might be amongst the most clueless powers that have have ever been.

I agree with most of the critical feedback here and I hope things get fixed. The old feature I miss the most is the ability to drag and highlight on the graph of a run in order to learn about what pace, HR, and grade I experienced on any given stretch.

Yes, thanks Jason for passing on the info. The part "reverting back to the old layout is not an option" has actually shut us up. No point asking for something when there is no hope. Would have been good for Strava to tell us that some pages back. I'd like to know *why* it's not an option. Anyway looks like we are stuck with it, and can only hope they understand the problems, even if they are not being fixed in a hurry. They don't seem to confirm or deny the existence of several issues, but they do say that improvements will come. I'm a cyclist and the strava experience - segments, comments, kudos - have changed my cycling completely and made me improve a great deal in four months. Instead of just going for rides of known distances, it is really exciting to do interval or speed training as well (in the form of segment leaderboard position maintenance). So I'm not going anywhere.

I can't see this mentioned anywhere here but as I scroll across my run in the performance graph I can see the details of time, elevation, pace, HR etc which is great, but as the line lags behind the position of the pointer I can't see the last portion of the activity once the pointer gets to the edge of the chart. However I've just discovered that this is only a problem if my window is maximised, odd. I the attached pic my pointer was on the edge of the graph, if I moved it any further to the right then the data disappeard. Using Explorer 9.

There is no update. The intro page still starts with the at this point completely insulting "Great news, runners..."

Yeah. Great. A less functional page, coupled with messages that they won't roll back to something that worked, this vague but hardly believable line about how runners weren't guinea pigs for a redesign.

Almost 3 months out and the speed is still inverted, meaning if you have to stop at a busy street, your graph is worthless. Inverting it is idiotic, truly so and seems to have been implemented without the slightest clue as to how it would actually play with real data, coupled with a complete cluelessness about math. Stopping should not make the graph shoot towards infinity. Having the base of the graph being a stop at zero fixes this problem and makes the visuals more intuitive. You still cannot see the graph according to time. You still cannot zoom to segments of the graph. There is still no key on the axis for displaying HR.

Fixes were coming soon apparently. They kept used that word. I do not think it means what they think it does.

It certainly doesn't seem like there's any fixes. It seems like they've just put head in sand, unclear that making their users angry is not what they want to do.

Is anyone there at Strava concerned about how terrible this is making you all look? Does anyone there actually want people to like the product? Or is it so cycling centric that you've decided that it's not worth the trouble.

Good news! Every day makes it easier for me to *not* buy a premium membership.

I really miss the old layout which is still available for rides (please save this!). ... I set a new PR on my 10k time? Fine! But where within the whole run?? I really liked this feature as I could analyse where the fastest 10k within a half-marathon have been etc. Plz bring it back!

I'm sure it's been mentioned here, but the pace graph is utterly useless if you have to stop at a light or for a drink or anything, because it shoots up to like 40 min/mile or whatever and the scale is way off. I understand Strava takes into account total time, not just moving time, for segments and ranking people which makes sense. But moving time only in the graph for ourselves to see would sure be nice.

Michael, yes. It's been mentioned. I even opened a ticket and was told that they actually *wanted* the pace graph to have the inverted layout and that they had no plans on fixing their mistake. It really seems like the 'design' team worked in a vacuum, without looking at how real data would be displayed, and when confronted with the problems, are too prideful to admit that they made a mistake. The magnitude of the design flaw, the poor progress on making it into something useful is somewhat comical at this point.

I take it from the silence that the CS people just cannot fathom having to stand up and take any more strife to defend some truly terrible decisions from management and design. I don't wish unemployment on anyone, but if they've blown through their venture money, I do hope that anyone looking at funding them understands just how inept they've been. The social aspects of segments and comparison is great. The design application intially was a good starting point. But they've really, really abandoned anything resembling design in favor of something that's getting mighty close to useless.

Can we get some estimated timings when the updates will be actioned? Saying "coming soon" or "when up to our high standard" is deliberately vague.

The strava community should be about dialogue and communication. So far us users have kept our part of this, but your lack of updates or even acknowledgements in this thread is poor form. Are we wasting our time?

I appreciate that a lot of people are moaning about many common themes but this is honest & constructive (on the whole). We just want the same from you; tell us if things aren't returning, or if there are software issues, or the next update will be in 3 months, or if there is no update. Just tell us something! As well as being more professional, it can only improve our relationship.

Have to agree once again about the inverted pace graph. It might work better if the effect of the pauses was minimised by altering the scale of the vertical axis to extenuate the moving sections but really looking "up" to see when you had to stop makes no sense. Impossible to see when you sped up amongst the "noise" at the bottom.

Well all I can tell from that is that he paused at 6 miles! Otherwise you have a huge amount of white space with the "interesting" bit as a virtually straight line at the very bottom. Impossible to think anybody could think that is anything other than rubbish,

I use Strava for segments in the main but to actually "analyse" my run need to go elsewhere really.

It's clear, even by Strava's own admission that the new run page currently (and, as things appear to be, indefinitely) doesn't do everything the old one does. We've documented the hell out of them on this seemingly ignored thread. The functionality had degraded significantly in favor of a glossly new look that is less efficient for most of the things that you can still do. Do you Strava service folk have a spin on things that the new one *can* do that the old one does?

The "we'll reimplement" might be more tolerable if there was ANY evidence that things were a) actually going to happen and b) weren't simply a way to get back to what already worked. Please Strava CS folk, post *something* that makes it even slightly appear that you're not just hiding from this. You're alienating your users big time. That's a lousy way to run a business. What the hell is *really* going on?